What makes a Christian a Christian?

Players:

Granddad, grandma, preacher, youth 1, youth 2, middle aged person

(Before the church service begins - granddad and grandma are sitting dignified on their chairs. The door opens and in come youth 1 and youth 2. They take a seat and start playing around with their mobile phones.)

GRANDAD:

(To grandma, but so loud so that everyone can hear) the youth of today. They don’t even say hello and these things that they run about in… In those days Sunday was a holy day and we would wear our best clothes. The youths respected the older generation in those days.

GRANDMA:

Don’t get yourself worked up. The whole community just heard what you said. Maybe those two are a little bit sulky, because you pulled them up on their clothes last Sunday.

GRANDAD:

That is my duty. The girl looked as if she came out of the house of ill repute and the boy looked wild. Their parents don’t seem to have a check on them. If they were my children, I’d bring them up to be proper Christians.

(Sign: In the Sunday school)

(Youth 1 and youth 2 are sitting there bored)

PREACHER:

Today’s theme and food for thought is: The community: Living together with each other. This theme is also interesting for our community. We have lots of different generations in our church.

GRANDDAD:

Well living together with the younger generation (looks at youth 1 and youth 2) – that is not possible anymore. No true Christian behaves like these youths.

YOUTH 2:

Oh, yes, and you believe that you are a true Christian?

YOUTH 1:

Who decides how a Christian should dress and which songs they should sing at service? I would rather not be a Christian if it means being like you.

MIDDLE AGED:

Before we carry on this discussion, we should talk respectfully with each other.

PREACHER:

Exactly. Respecting others is what makes a Christian.

(Granddad is offended, youths feel supported)

GRANDMA:

Ach, but everything was different in those days. Young people were full of enthusiasm at church service.

YOUTH 2:

Oh yeah, and why should I be full of enthusiasm, for the “wonderful songs” or the moving preacher?

YOUTH 1:

Exactly – the songs. Why should we keep singing these songs from the Middle Ages? Why can’t we make the church services a little more modern with drums accompaniments and introductions and such?

GRANDAD:

You have your young people’s church service every half year. (Heated) and anyway, this loud drum music only makes the service undignified. These rock songs are the work of the devil.

MIDDLE AGED:

That’s not true. There are even Christian rock bands. I think that that is a good thing. We can bring God to the young people with such things.

YOUTH 1:

Yes, it would be cool if we had a little concert in our church service.

GRANDAD:

Then we won’t come to church anymore. We certainly didn’t change the whole service for the young people in the past.

PREACHER:

It really is a shame that you have that opinion, but other things also belong to the theme today.

GRANDMA:

A Christian should always focus themselves on their beliefs. That is the most important thing. If everyone did this, there wouldn’t be any disagreements in the community.

MIDDLE AGED:

I see that differently. The most important thing is – whether evangelical, catholic, chapel Christian or any other Christian for that matter – that we love Jesus and that he is no.1 in our lives. I do not think that only we (...a certain community of a specific church) are
God’s chosen ones. There are almost certainly lots of other Christians who are more sincere than some of us.

GRANDAD:

Only we (...members of this community) follow everything which is written in the bible. There is no doubt that we are the only true Christians.

YOUTH 2:

So you believe that you are better than another Christian because you don’t drink any alcohol, go to church every Sunday, don’t eat pork and give your tithes?

YOUTH 1:

I don’t believe that these things are the most important things in being a Christian.

GRANDMA:

That means that our beliefs are totally superfluous? Then we might as well go to the catholic (evangelical, chapel ...) church.

PREACHER:

I see that the time has flown by. In conclusion I would like to say that the most important thing is to love God with all of your heart. Our beliefs are only meant to make God even more powerful. Not only is the Christian, who makes sure that they follow all of the rules and beliefs, a good
Christian. A good Christian is the person who has God as the most important thing in life and translates this thought in their life.